I had an epiphany this summer. I sussed out what holidays are all about: doing nothing. I know. Hold the front page. Holidays should be relaxing, shocker! But for me, this was life-changing stuff. For a long time I thought holidays should be jam-packed - whether it be non-stop exercise, a giddy round of sightseeing or a ridiculously ambitious itinerary covering too much ground in too little time, I invariably came back from trips exhausted. Still I stuck to my theory that sitting round the pool with my nose in a book was a waste of time.

How wrong I was. Earlier this year I did exactly that at a new boutique hotel, the aptly named Casa La Siesta in Andalucía, and it was a revelation.

Casa La Siesta, Andalucia, Spain Photograph: PR

Casa La Siesta is well set up for laziness. First, it's more posh guest house than small hotel. Lee and Amelia, the young English owners, built the property themselves and live in one wing of the house. This means no formal check-in, no room service, no too-eager-to please waiters, no fixed table for dinner. Instead guests treat the place like home, sprawling on sofas or outdoor cushions, helping themselves to free beer from a tap in the garden, eating meals when they fancy it, rather than at set times. Roly, the couple's lolloping Shar Pei, a hilarious looking dog whose skin is too baggy for its body, seemed an entirely appropriate hotel mascot.

The hacienda-style property is barely recognisable as the original farmhouse they bought back in 2007. Extended on both sides it now has a huge living area and seven guest bedrooms which, thanks to antique fixtures and fittings, look a lot older than they really are. The original features are down to Lee who spent 18 months sourcing old beams, floor and roof tiles, doors and window frames from reclamation yards and cortijos set for demolition. The vast 40sq/m bedrooms have pale floors and walls, a wood burning stove and books on the shelf, just in case you've forgotten to bring one. So far, so Country Living. But the couple's own story is even more fascinating than the restoration: Grand Designs with a twist of Mills and Boon.

Lee came to Spain after a serious illness left him in need of sunshine and a more laid-back lifestyle than the one on offer in London. Shunning the larger cities, he ended up in the sleepy, hill-top town of Vejer de la Frontera, where he signed up for a Spanish language course. Amelia, who was also recovering from illness, was the first person he met. Within weeks the loved-up couple bought their first flat in the town, but their dream was much more ambitious and eventually they found a run-down farmhouse in the nearby hamlet of Los Parralejos.

In the field at the bottom of the property Buddy and Eddy, a rescue donkey and horse, chomped away; beyond the fence was an expanse of parched fields and a single twisty track. It looked like the set of a car ad. Every hour or so a vehicle cruised along throwing up a cloud of dust before disappearing again. A row of wind turbines are a blot or welcome addition to the landscape, depending on your take.

It's a 10-minute drive past fields of sun flowers into Vejer de la Frontera where you can wander shady, windy alleyways, dip into boutiques, stop for a caña at the bar in the bougainvillea-filled plaza with its pretty tiled fountain. We popped our heads round the door of two funky B&Bs: Casa Cinco and Escondrijo, tall, higgledy-piggledy converted townhouses each with little terraces overlooking Vejer's red rooftops. Lovely as they were, I was pleased to get back to the airy rooms, lawn and - vital in July - pool of Casa La Siesta.

On our second day we ventured a little further down to El Palmar, a beach on the Costa de la Luz, that vast sandy coastline more popular with Spanish holidaymakers than Brits. It was a Sunday and the sand was awash with colourful umbrella shades, the roadside restaurants full of families. We opted for lunch at La Chanca, which was delicious but three platefuls of prawns, calamari and clams and a couple of rounds of drinks came to over €100 for four. We'd have been better off going for the €18 three-course lunch back at the hotel.

Breakfast at La Siesta the next day made up for missing lunch - sliced fruit; pan con tomate, yogurt and granola, little pots of chopped avocado, fantastic local olive oil, all presented beautifully on a terrace filled with lavender and lime trees. The only sensible thing to do after breakfast was lie by the pool, and sip cooling glasses of cucumber water that magically appeared by my side each time I felt a bit parched. One couple staying there had turned the colour of the beams in my room. "They've been here for 10 days and have done nothing. I don't think they've even been into town, just stayed by the pool. It's brilliant. It's exactly what I want people to do here - rest and recuperate," said Lee.

Now it is too hot to exercise, but come autumn it will be cool enough to take gentle walks along surrounding trails, with a picnic delivered en route by the hotel. Lee and Amelia also have plans to introduce yoga sessions in the winter months. Spain helped cure them both and they want that sense of wellbeing to permeate the hotel.

The calm atmosphere is aided by their no-kids policy (unless you take the whole house on an exclusive basis). I have nothing against children but knowing that no child was going to come screeching past me to dive bomb into the pool or have a tantrum at breakfast certainly added to my blissed out state.

The couple say they will stick to this policy - even when their own baby arrives at the end of the year. In the mean time, Casa La Siesta more than lives up to its name.